Spring Exhibitions Opening: Celebrate New Exhibitions at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center
Join the John Michael Kohler Arts Center for a Spring Exhibitions Opening Celebration on Sunday, March 9, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., featuring the Arts Center’s annual Youth Art Month exhibitions plus its newest exhibitions theme, Constructed Realities. The celebration features a gallery talk with exhibition curators and a chance to recognize some of the students who participated in Youth Art Month. Hands-on workshops for adults and children, refreshments and music round out the activities. All activities are free unless otherwise noted.
GALLERY TALK
Explore the exhibition Stretching the Truth with Associate Curator Jennifer Jankauskas, 1:00 p.m. Learn how twenty-six talented artists use traditional and modern techniques to alter photographs, blurring the line between truth and fiction.
WORKSHOPS FOR ADULTS AND CHILDREN
*Workshops are FREE to Youth Art Month students.
Photo Fictions ($2)*
Stretch the truth by transforming your digital portrait (taken during the workshop) or other photos. Use some of the same techniques as the artist in this mind-bending exhibition.
Constructed Sculptural Transformations ($2)*
Construct a one-of-a -kind three-dimensional sculpture with multiple photo postcards. How high can you go?
Build a Bower! FREE
Stretch the truth a wee bit by collaborating with artist Kris Rusch on a gigantic and fantastic bower to attract bower birds and us humans!
Live Music
Sheboygan County students, including the Sheboygan North High School Northern Lights, Kohler Jazz Ensemble, Kohler Swing Choir and Sheboygan South High School Jazz Ensemble, will provide live music throughout the celebration.
Refreshments will be served.
EXHIBITIONS—
Youth Art Month
The twenty-second annual Youth Art Month exhibition (open March 2–April 12) includes nearly 400 works by Sheboygan County public and private school students, kindergarten through grade twelve. All works were created during the current school year and were chosen for exhibition by the students’ art teachers. Students Dzaimal Bohlmann (Grade 5, Jefferson Elementary School), Jordan Kussel (Grade 10, Kohler High School), Xou Chang (Sheboygan North High School), and Xia Yang (Grade 12, Sheboygan South High School) were honored by having their pictures chosen for use in this year’s Youth Art Month promotional materials.
Constructed Realities
The three exhibitions of Constructed Realities call into question what is truth and what is fiction. Artists featured in the exhibitions employ various methods including sculpture and photography to examine the difference between what we see and what we know is true.
Stretching the Truth (open February 10–May 3) features the works of 26 artists who creatively and even playfully manipulate photography, forcing viewers to reconsider whether photos always depict the truth. Valerie Hegarty’s Seascape (March 2–June 7) combines historical painting with architecture to challenge notions of time and space in her unique installation Overseas (Fireplace with Harpoons). In Domestic Archaeology (March 30–June 14), Chris Sauter physically deconstructs walls and objects and reinvents them into something new. At the Arts Center, Sauter literally will use materials cut from the Center’s walls to create a site-specific work of art.
For more information regarding Youth Art Month, Constructed Realities, or the opening celebration, call 920-458-6144 or visit www.jmkac.org.
(*) NOTE: Contact Shannon Luckey at sluckey@jmkac.org or Amy Hafemann at ahafemann@jmkac.org to arrange for transfer of additional images via e-mail or FTP site.
Established in 1967, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center is a nationally acclaimed visual and performing arts complex in downtown Sheboygan. The Arts Center is devoted to innovative explorations in contemporary American art. Its exhibitions focus on a wide range of art forms, with particular emphasis on sculpture, photography, crafts, new genres, installation art, ongoing folk traditions, and the work of self-taught artists. The performing arts emphasize dance, music and theatre performances from around the world. Programming also includes a renowned Arts/Industry residency program, classes and special events. With the completion of its expansion, the new 100,000 sq. ft. Arts Center is comprised of ten galleries, an intimate theatre, a flexible interdisciplinary performance space, studio-classrooms, meeting spaces, the ARTspace shop and the ARTcafe. The Arts Center also has an adjunct site: ARTspace, an exhibition space and shop in the Shops at Woodlake in the Village of Kohler. Call 920-458-6144 for additional information, or visit the Arts Center’s website, www.jmkac.org.
Arts Center Hours Cafe Hours
Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Daily 10:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.
Tuesdays and Thursdays 10:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m. Also Tuesdays and Thursdays 5:00 p.m.–7:30 p.m.
Saturdays and Sundays 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. Before evening performances 5:00 p.m.–7:30 p.m.
